Just outside the Bastion Drebbin is assembling branches to make himself some form of crudely put together room. It doesn’t seem to be very well put together and seems to offer little protection from the elements or any form of attack. Drebbin stacks another freshly collected dead branch from the area and places it on top of the crude branch pile that makes up his new home. He grabs a small dagger from his belt and begins carving symbol of Varya into the branch. After the markings were complete he proudly throws his hands into the air.

‘LORD VARYA. MAY YOUR BLESSING BE ON THIS BUILDING NOW. MAY YOU BLESS IT WITH YOUR MOST HUMBLE GIFT OF PROTECTION SO THAT WE MAY USE IT TO KEEP US AND THOSE WHICH WE CALL OUR FRIENDS SAFE FROM THE SCARY STUFF OUT HERE THAT WE DON’T REALLY LIKE, LIKE THE UNDEAD OF WHICH YOU HAVE FOUGHT MANY. MAY THE WOODEN BRANCHES OF THIS FORT OFFER PROTECTION FROM THE NASTINESS THAT SURROUNDS US AND THOSE OF WHICH WE NOW CALL MY FRIENDS. MAY THIS STAND AS A FORT OF PROTECTION IN YOUR NAME. LORD VARYA MAY YOUR BLESSINGS KEEP THIS FORT SAFE FOR THOSE WHO SHELTER WITHIN IT THAT I CALL MY FRIENDS. MAY YOU KEEP THE WALLS STRONG AND STANDING FIRM FROM THE POTENTIAL ATTACK FROM THE GENERAL NASTINESS AND UNDEAD OF WHICH YOU HAVE FOUGHT MANY...THANK YOU.’

With this finished he walks up to the nearest fallen branch and begins the process over again.

A little way away from the scene, an air elf watches the human's progress with some curiosity. After watching the human for some time, the elf's hunger starts to overcome his curiosity, and he drops down from his vantage point and stalks off into the never-dawning night.

In front of Drebbin's construction, facing towards the evil infested darkness, Rev is forcing a scavenged shield into a groove dug in the floor, attempting to add a makeshift barrier to help defend from attack. It has groves in the handle to hold crossbow bolts, which appear to have been haphazardly cut with a short sword, and a couple of branches also planted into the floor help keep the shield up.

"Well, it's at least... something... kind of..." Rev said, turning to face Drebbin. "We're going to need more stuff, and more people." Rev then took out a bottle and drank some of it's contents, and then offered it to Drebbin.

Drebbin takes a quick swig and begins to inscribe the shields with large varia symbols and ones age screaming loudly his prayers to varia.

‘LORD VARYA. MAY YOUR BLESSING BE ON THIS BUILDING NOW. MAY YOU BLESS IT WITH YOUR MOST HUMBLE GIFT OF PROTECTION SO THAT WE MAY USE IT TO KEEP US AND THOSE WHICH WE CALL OUR FRIENDS SAFE FROM THE SCARY STUFF OUT HERE THAT WE DON’T REALLY LIKE, LIKE THE UNDEAD OF WHICH YOU HAVE FOUGHT MANY. MAY THE SHIELDS THAT ONES PROTECTED THOSE WHO WHILED IT NOW PROTECT US FROM THE NASTINESS THAT SURROUNDS US AND THOSE OF WHICH WE NOW CALL MY FRIENDS....THANK YOU...LORD VARA...

As Drebbin shouts to Varya, a warrior can be seen approaching from the Bastion. He's armed and armoured, and drags a small hand cart behind him. When he gets to the makeshift 'gate', he sets down the cart, walks over and without a word kicks hard at the defence. One side gives, but the other holds and the shield still stands blocking the approach. He gives it an appraising nod, then looks up and nods to Drebbin. "Aquilla mentioned you might need some help setting up. I think you might have even made him think twice about refusing you entry to the Bastion. Haven't seen that before." He shrugs with a smile. "Name's Reith."

Drebbin looks at the warrior slightly baffled. ‘Aquilla... sent you but he wanted to ...kill us...he heats us as we use the magic of witch shadow’.‘y did Aquilla send Reith to help protect those who he wishes dead.’

Reith shrugs. "Like I know what goes on in air elf's head. Come on." He lifts up the shield gate and turns back to his cart. As he drags the cart closer, Drebbin can see that it's carrying tools and what look like hides, though what of isn't clear. "Right, let's start by getting a wall set up that will actually slow the buggers down. We can worry about a gate once they aren't able to just walk round it. Here." He tosses Drebbin a shovel. "Mound and ditch is quite effective. Bit of a wall on the top, maybe some sharpened poles in the ditch." Picking up another shovel, Reith heads back out of the 'gate', then stops and turns back. "What's your name, anyway?"

Ow ... we are drebbin. With this he runs to the outside and begins digging

‘LORD VARYA. MAY YOUR BLESSING BE ON THIS BUILDING NOW. MAY YOU BLESS IT WITH YOUR MOST HUMBLE GIFT OF PROTECTION SO THAT WE MAY USE IT TO KEEP US AND THOSE WHICH WE CALL OUR FRIENDS SAFE FROM THE SCARY STUFF OUT HERE THAT WE DON’T REALLY LIKE, LIKE THE UNDEAD OF WHICH YOU HAVE FOUGHT MANY....

"We..?" Reith shrugs as the stranger sets to the task with aplomb, if not much finesse, and also sets to work. He goes around the perimeter marking out the bounds for the ditch, then makes sure the soil, or whatever passes for soil in the wastes, is piled in the right place. It takes some effort to refrain from planning something much larger than is really needed.

The work is slow and hard, and on more than one occasion, has to stop in order to see off a small demon or undead raid. After a couple of days, Reith returns to the Bastion to recruit some of the less fanatical guards to help with the work, and after around a week, there is a reasonably sized ditch around the area Drebbin had marked out, with a mound on the inside. Two clear paths remain for unhindered passage into and out of the small fort.

Rev also takes part in the digging, helping to make the ditch bigger. Occasionally praying to Varya himself, but his prayers are somewhat quieter and more subtle.

"Well, it's kind of obvious what Aquilla's thinking, he doesn't want us dead, just wants us outside the Bastion of Hope. And we're still the enemy of his enemy, he'd rather have us survive than demons."

Drebbin ponders this for a moment then continues working and preaching varia in the overly loud manner he is known for. Making shore that every pise of the construction and everything used in the construction of wat he has calling the fort of vari has been suitably preached about in varias name.

With the ditch finished, Reith has started organising work on the walls. Nothing more than waist-high wooden palisades to provide an extra degree of impediment to anyone trying to attack the small fort. When the magic envelops him, he is part-way through hammering a pole into the ground to support the wall. There is a moment's uncertainty, then with a sound like crackling embers lingering around the area, Reith is gone, his hammer sailing off behind him, narrowly missing one of the guards watching for demon attacks.

At the same time Kendra is also outside, taking a brief respite from the work. She stretches and picks up her cup, drinking more from habit than thirst. She pauses for a moment and her face changes, her expression puzzled. The next moment the cup clatters to the ground as Kendra vanishes into thin air.